


Almost Home

by missmara



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-12
Updated: 2011-08-12
Packaged: 2017-10-22 13:29:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/238540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missmara/pseuds/missmara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A year after the end of the world, JJ, Hotch, and Reid have finally managed to get back to DC, and they can only hope to find their loved ones. Focuses more on hope than anything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Almost Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [voodoochild](https://archiveofourown.org/users/voodoochild/gifts).



_The team had been in California on a case, talking to Garcia about the information she'd dug up on possible suspects, when the line had crackled and Garcia had sworn under her breath about flickering computer screens. They'd heard one last exclamation of shock and horror from her, a mention of terror alerts flashing everywhere, and then silence as the line went dead, followed a moment later by an explosion over head that rattled windows and sent them stumbling for cover. They lost Rossi in the initial event, part of the building collapsing on top of him, but the rest of team and a handful of local police had survived, and suddenly catching the killer hadn't been as important as getting home to their families had been._

 _They never found out what had happened, with guesses ranging from terrorist attack, to asteroid strike, to the sun going nova. Reid quickly dispelled the last one, pointing out that not only was the sun the wrong type to go nova, but if it had the Earth would have been completely destroyed in the process. And anyway, they might not see the sun anymore thanks to the constant and pervasive cloud cover, but the sky still got lighter for half the day. He couldn't dispel the other two, and in fact had argued both for and against them, as well as a half dozen other theories, at various times. He always came to the same conclusion, though, that what had happened wasn't as important as what would happen, and that if they wanted to rebuild the world, it was up to them, to all the survivors, to work for it._

 _And so, a year after the world went to hell, they found themselves just outside of Washington. Almost home._

~~~

"I know everyone's tired, but we're less than ten miles out, we can get to the outskirts by mid-afternoon if we push ourselves," JJ said from her spot standing in the back of a pick up, raising her voice just enough to be heard over the usual morning noises of the camp. "Like usual, as we approach a city, we stay as quiet as possible, and we stay on alert. That means mouths shut, ears open, weapons at ready. Children ride in the trucks, windows up, doors locked. Slow walkers ride in the truck beds. Be ready to run if the call is given. We'll find somewhere to take shelter as quickly as possible, top choice is a school with a completely enclosed playground, second choice is a school with an attached gym. If we don't find one of those by three in the afternoon, we find something temporary and look again in the morning. Make sure you have everything, because we will not come back for anything. You have fifteen minutes, be ready," she concluded as she moved to the tailgate, smiling tightly at Hotch as he offered her a hand down.

"You've always had a way with people," Hotch said, glancing around at the buzz of activity. "They listen to you more than they do me."

"They listen to you, they just do it out of fear since Happy Hotch and Grumpy Hotch look identical," JJ said. "Where are the girls?"

"Reid's getting them settled in one of the trucks and double checking their gear."

"Is he going to be good about admitting he's a slow walker this time?" JJ asked.

"He will if you sweet talk him," Hotch said with a slight smile.

"I'll threaten to use his books for kindling, that usually works."

"He knows you won't."

"I don't care if he knows, as long as it works," JJ said, frowning as one of the orphaned girls she and Hotch took turns taking care of, trying to ease the ache of not having their own children with them, suddenly appeared from within the crowd. "Kelly?"

"The radio," she said, breathing hard as she looked up, her eyes bright with excitement and worry. "Dr. Reid says there's a signal."

JJ and Hotch ran over, and Reid moved away from where he'd been carefully adjusting the dial to let JJ take over. Sure enough, through the crackling static, they heard a voice, unintelligible, but real. JJ looked over her shoulder at Hotch and Reid, who both seemed torn between relief and worry. "It could be a trap," JJ said, voicing their fears. That had happened before, a small, desperate, group getting a radio and pretending to be a military aid base. They'd been desperate enough themselves that they weren't wary, and the cost had been Prentiss and Morgan's lives and a bullet lodged in Reid's knee.

"We'll keep it on as we go in," Hotch said after consideration. "If it clears up, we'll talk tonight about our next move. Until then..."

"Keep it quiet," JJ agreed. "Makes me glad we only have one working radio," she added. "I'm in this one today, you wanna switch?"

"No, I trust your judgement, and I can listen tonight if it's still coming in," Hotch said. He looked over at Reid, who's hand was resting on his holster already. "Don't argue today, Reid, I want you in the back, and if we're ambushed, you're JJ's gunman. Only one I trust with them."

"I'll be ready," Reid promised.

"I'll be in the lead, use the handheld if you hear anything important," Hotch continued to JJ, gesturing at the radio, still emitting the garbled voice. Once she nodded, he started for his own truck, glancing back towards JJ's with a tight but hopeful smile.

~~~

As they got closer, the radio cleared, and JJ felt a lump in her throat when she heard the familiar voice. She grabbed the handheld radio, and quickly called Hotch. "It's Garcia's voice," she said. "But I think it's a recording. It just keeps repeating the same information."

For a moment, there was silence. "What does she say?" Hotch finally asked.

"That any survivors should go to the Lincoln Memorial, that teams will check it regularly, that any survivors are welcome, but attacks will be met with deadly force. And..."

"And?"

"And that if the BAU makes it home, Will, Henry, and Jack are okay. And waiting for us," JJ said, trying to hold back her tears.

"It might be old news, something could have happened since then," Hotch said, but he sounded more hopeful than he had since they lost Morgan and Prentiss. "We'll find a place to make camp for the night, then check it out in the morning. There's enough places around the Memorial that we can find shelter there if we have to."

"Hotch..."

"You know we can't risk traveling through the city at night," Hotch said. "No matter how much we want to."

"I know," JJ agreed. "One more day."

"One more day," Hotch promised.

~~~

In the morning, they finally gave a full briefing to the rest of the caravan, and with the added hope of their leaders finding their families, everyone moved faster and the caravan arrived at the Lincoln Memorial by mid-day. They got as close as they could with the vehicles before turning off the engines and continuing on foot, and as they got closer, they heard the sounds of people talking and children laughing first. Then, as they rounded a copse of trees, they saw a few dozen people gathered between the Memorial and the Reflecting Pool.

"Daddy!"

Hotch dropped his pack as he spotted Jack running towards him, then dropped to his knees to sweep his son into his arms. "Jack," he whispered.

"Oh my God!"

JJ looked up laughing as she saw Garcia running over in a bright pink jacket, only slightly faded and patched from wear and tear. She wrapped her arms around the other woman in a tight hug before stepping back. "Will and Henry?" she asked.

"Will's cooking and Henry's taking a nap," Garcia said. "They're fine, and let me tell you it was a nightmare keeping Will from going to find you, but I told him you would come home to them, and if he left you might pass right by each other and never know it!"

JJ laughed again, nodding. "I..."

"JJ!"

She released Garcia to run across the grass to Will, grabbing him and hanging on as though their lives depended on her grip. "I was so scared you wouldn't be here," she whispered.

"I was scared you'd never get here," Will countered. "Henry's fine, he's taking a nap up by Lincoln. You have good timing," he added as the others joined them, Hotch carrying Jack. "We were gonna head back to our main base after lunch. Once every two weeks we make the trek here, stay for three days, then head back. Each time we've gathered a couple more people who heard Garcia's message. We kept hoping you guys would get here, but... we were about to give up."

"The roads are a mess," Hotch said. "And we had to hunker down for the winter in Ohio, delayed us a couple months."

"The important thing is you made it," Will said, reaching out to grasp Hotch's shoulder, then doing the same to Reid as Garcia fussed over his limp. "Come on, let's get everybody some food. We even have some cool beer."

~~~

 _JJ had finally broken down in tears when Henry woke up, saw her sitting next to him, and immediately smiled and called her Mommy. She'd been half convinced he wouldn't recognize her, he was only three when she last saw him and that had been a year ago, with her in a clean shirt and slacks, not jeans and an unravelling sweater. Later, someone told her that Will and Garcia had shown Henry pictures of her daily, telling him how much his mommy loved him and that if she could get home to him, she would._

 _They didn't talk about who wasn't there, even though Will and Garcia had searched the crowd of new arrivals for Prentiss, Morgan, and Rossi, while JJ, Hotch, and Reid noticed that Kevin and others who worked in their building weren't anywhere in sight. Instead they rejoiced that some of them were there, together once more._

 **The End ******

**Author's Note:**

> I struggled a bit with this, since the prompt was basically just 'Criminal Minds', and that was it. I had about four false starts before I finally settled on the theme of hope underlying it. The hope that Will, Henry, and Jack were okay. The hope that they could find a way to rebuild something out of the ruins. The hope that when they finally got home, something would be left.
> 
> Hopefully voodoochild will like this, because I sorta love it, even though it's low on the violence and bloodshed I usually put in my Apocalyptic fics.


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